Saturday, April 04, 2009

Fried Padron Peppers

Ivy from Kopiaste is hosting this edition of Weekend Herb Blogging and this week I have finally managed to score this most elusive vegetable, Padrón Peppers

Although the season here in Australia runs from December to May, this is the first time I've seen them available.

These bite sized peppers have a quirky characteristic - about 1 in 10 will be hot and there's no way to tell until you bite into them. You'll see it often described as "Russian roulette with Padrón."

When it comes to eating them, best have something refreshing to douse the heat just in case you happen to be the (un)lucky one.

To serve, it couldn't be easier. You could stuff them with cheese and bake them or simply fry - either shallow or deep, until the skin puffs and starts to pull away from the flesh. I've gone for the simple option.

Fried Padrón Peppers

Padrón Peppersolive oilsea salt

Clean the peppers with the damp cloth and then dry them completely. Leave them intact - don't remove the stalk.

Shallow or deep fry, a few at a time, turning them as the skin stars to puff. Once the skin is all wrinkly, remove and place on paper towels to remove any excess oil.

Sprinkle with a little sea salt and continue the process until all the peppers are done. You will notice that the peppers will deflate on cooling.

In the batch I had, the hottest was probably a 5 on a scale of 1 to 10, most had a sweetish, fresh pepper taste that went well with a good glass of Shiraz.

These "pimientos padron" are something of a regional specialty of Galicia in neighboring Spain. They serve them exactly as you did, shallow or deep fried in olive oil and then salted with sea salt, tough I think the shallow fry is mostly used (pardon my english. You can find them in just about every single "tapas" bar across the country (by "tapas" is/are small snacks of virtually any type of food - but preferentially fried - typically served with a serving of wine - or beer - with the food served in a small plate covering the beverage glass, like a lid, hence the name "tapas" - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tapas).They're also relatively common here in Portugal, especially in the major metropolitan areas and we prepare them just like the spanish.

Great blog! Question for you re: shallow frying. How much oil do you use for this - ie/ is it enough that the peppers are actually immersed or not? (Or maybe that's the definition of deep frying - that the item can be immersed?). Was also wondering about this same point re: the crab fritters / stuffed zucchini flowers on your blog which were shallow fried (I've been cruising around cooking websites as I'm planning for a dinner party). Thanks much!

HI Kyla - deep frying involves a far greater quantity of oil as the objects have to fully submerged, with shallow frying the oil is somewhere between a third and three-quarters the depth of the object you are cooking.

When I fry things I use the smallest saucepan I have, this way I limit the total amount of oil I'm using and can control the temperature a lot better. For the fritters and the peppers, the oil depth was less than an inch - the zucchini flowers the oil is a bit deeper as the object I'm cooking is larger